Itchy lips after the first strawberries of summer, or a red rash around your child's mouth? Strawberries get blamed for a lot, and only some of it is IgE. Our test checks your blood for IgE antibodies to two strawberry proteins, as part of 300 allergens and allergen components including birch pollen and peach.
Strawberry is a member of the rose family, like apple, pear and cherry. Its best-known allergens follow the same two patterns. Fra a 1 is a PR-10 protein that resembles birch's Bet v 1. It is linked to mouth itching in people with birch pollen sensitisation and breaks down with heat, so jam often causes no trouble.
Fra a 3 is a lipid transfer protein (LTP). LTPs survive heat and digestion, and they are associated with reactions beyond the mouth. LTP sensitisation is more common in southern Europe, often together with peach.
People describe itching or tingling of the lips and mouth after fresh strawberries, and sometimes hives. In small children, a red rash around the mouth after strawberries is very common. Often this is the fruit irritating the skin, not an IgE reaction, which is one reason a blood result helps.
Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, trouble breathing or feeling faint after eating is an emergency. Call 112 (EU) or your local emergency number. Do not wait for a test.
A positive strawberry result shows that your blood has IgE that recognises strawberry proteins. It does not tell you that you will react, or how strongly. Many people with birch sensitisation show strawberry IgE and eat strawberries without problems.
A negative result is useful too, especially when you are trying to work out whether a rash was IgE at all. Either way, a doctor reads the result together with what actually happened.
Your finger-prick sample goes to the lab, which measures IgE to the strawberry proteins Fra a 1 and Fra a 3 together, as one combined result. There is no whole strawberry extract on the panel. Because the two proteins share one value, the birch and peach markers on the same report help show which pattern is more likely. Your lab report gives a measured value and class, from Negative to Very high. Discuss the result with a doctor before you change what you eat.
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One finger-prick sample checks IgE to 300 allergens and allergen components, from birch and peanut to cat and house dust mite. Post it to the lab, and about 5 days after it arrives you get a value for every one. Our plain-English guide shows you how to read them. €399 in total, €1.33 per allergen.
Not always. In children especially, strawberries often irritate the skin around the mouth without any IgE involved. A rash that spreads, hives elsewhere, swelling or breathing trouble is different. Talk to a doctor, and treat breathing trouble as an emergency.
Many people can, because the birch-like protein Fra a 1 breaks down with heat. The LTP Fra a 3 survives cooking, though. Ask a doctor what your result pattern means for you.
Many people think they react to strawberries, but confirmed IgE-mediated strawberry allergy is much rarer than the reported rashes suggest. A blood test helps separate sensitisation from other causes.
